Note: to read this posting on a calm presence see a conscient rethink (https://acalmpresence.substack.com/p/a-conscient-rethink-de1)
a conscient rethink
What needs to be said? Who needs to say it? Who wants to hear it? How does it help?
February 16th, 2025, on the unceded lands of the Algonquin-Anishinaabe people.
I started publishing the conscient podcast (https://conscient-podcast.simplecast.com/) and balado conscient (https://balado-conscient.simplecast.com/) in May of 2020.
My goal was to ‘explore art and the ecological crisis as a learning and unlearning journey’.
At that time I believed that ‘the arts and culture could play a critical role in raising awareness about sustainability issues and moving people towards action.’
Maybe. Maybe not.
At any rate, some 300 episodes later, I felt that this first leg of my conscient journey is complete and that I owe deep gratitude to my collaborators and to you, for listening.
It’s now time to rethink conscient.
Some of you might recall in my listen and co-create (https://acalmpresence.substack.com/p/listen-and-co-create-e1f) posting on a calm presence and this quote from the Intercultural Communication Handbook (http://bawakacollective.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/IC_Handbook_high.pdf) :
• Sensing, attending and being patient requires slowing down, pausing, and taking time to listen, look, feel and learn. Seeking to activate and use all our senses to relate as part of the world. This involves learning through relationships, through actions and through careful attention, not just through asking questions and talking a lot. Being patient and humble enables recognition of the myriad of messages that humans and non-human beings are always sending out.
These wise words encouraged me to slow me down and inspired me to take a pause from the production of conscient during the winter of 2025 and I tried to follow this good advice.
Others are also advocating for a slow down and a rethink.
For example Kai writes in Dense Discovery – Issue 326 / When enough outrage is enough (https://www.densediscovery.com/issues/326) :
• We have enough information. We know where we stand. The challenge now isn’t to understand more, but to act on what we already know, redirecting our energy from pointless online reaction to tangible local action. As I’ve said here before, we don’t need more clever dunks. We need more people showing up – in our communities, in our work, in the unglamorous spaces where real change takes root.
What did I do?
I listened to everyday life.
I stopped judging.
I meditated on presence.
I conversed with colleagues in the 10 week Surviving the Future : The Deeper Dive 2025 (https://ecogather.ing/surviving-the-future-the-deeper-dive/) course.
I shared some of my experiences in prepare, bend, sustain (https://acalmpresence.substack.com/p/prepare-bend-sustain-dbd) .
I read and listened to Shaun Chamberlin’s Dark Optimism (https://www.darkoptimism.org/) , Nate Hagens’ The Great Simplification (https://www.thegreatsimplification.com/) and Kamea Chayne’s Green Dreamer (https://www.greendreamer.com/) .
I also shovelled snow, learned to play tennis and played shinny.
Lots of shinny.
I also pondered listener feedback from previous seasons of conscient. Here are a few :
• your guests are inspiring and the conversations are nourishing : it fills a gap
• why don’t you present more diversity of voices, in particular from young people and the global south
• your conversations often go on too long. We’re more likely to listen if you edit them down
• you narrate too slowly : I. sometimes. fall. asleep. listening. to. you. drone. on.
• your podcast is not enough fun : why don't you try to be more uplifting and positive
• integrating soundscape compositions actually works well: it makes your podcast unique and compelling
• Why not give us more practical tools to engage with the issues not just philosophical musings and doomist projections
• try to be a bit more humble
• breathe more quietly and smoothly
With this feedback in mind, I came up with a set of questions to guide my work future forward:
• What needs to be said?
• Who needs to say it?
• Who wants to hear it?
• How does it help?
In other words, what is the point of all this chatter?
I thought back to why I listen to podcasts in the first place and what keeps me listening?
I listen to podcasts because they help me:
• break me out of isolation
• accept collapse
• feel solidarity and connection
• unlearn
• generate spiritual and physical energy
• empathise through tone of voice
• nurture presence through hesitation
• laugh and cry
• slow down and listen
• keep going in spite of the odds
conscient podcast studio production space
So, with all of this in mind, I’ve decided to go ahead and produce a 6th season of conscient.
You’ll be able to hear three episode types:
...